Lillian Lincoln

Who is Lillian Lincoln?

Lillian Lincoln Lambert is an African-American businesswoman. She is known for being the first African-American woman to graduate from Harvard Business School.

Lillian grew up in Ballsville, Virginia, fifty miles west of Richmond. She was the daughter of a teacher and a farmer. "Intent on making her mark in a big city," she went to New York after high school but the only work she found was as a maid. After three years in New York and disillusioned, she moved to Washington, D.C., found work in government typing pools and attended teachers' college part-time. At age 22, she transferred to Howard University and studied business. While at Howard, she met H. Naylor Fitzhugh, one of the first blacks to attend Harvard Business School -- MBA 1933. Lillian worked as Fitzhugh's research assistant at Howard and Fitzhugh became her mentor. He persuaded her to apply to HBS.

In the fall of 1967, Lillian registered for Harvard Business School. She didn't realize until she arrived that she was the only black woman at HBS. Of the 800 students in her class, only 6 were black and 18 female. During her first year, Lillian and four black classmates -- A. Leroy Willis, Clifford E. Darden, Theodore Lewis and George Robert Price -- talked about the need to increase the number of blacks at the school. They decided to start the HBS African-American Student Union. Dean George P. Baker supported the group and approached corporations to raise additional scholarship money. Over the course of two years, AASU increased the number of African-American students sevenfold, increased financial aid for African-American students and provided career development opportunities.